A Vatican diplomat has credited Pope Benedict XVI with “a cleansing of the episcopate”, saying that he removed many unsuitable bishops during his pontificate.
“This Pope has removed two or three bishops per month throughout the world because either the accounts in their dioceses were a mess or their discipline was a disaster,” said Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia in an address at the University of San Pablo in Madrid.
Archbishop Maury is apostolic nuncio to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan.
The Spanish archbishop said: “The nuncio went to these bishops and said, ‘The Holy Father is asking you for the good of the Church to resign from your post’.”
Nearly all of these bishops, when approached by the Pope’s representative, were aware of the “disaster” and accepted the request to resign, he added.
“There have been two or three instances in which they said no, and so the Pope simply removed them. This is also a message to the bishops: do the same thing in your dioceses.”
In a commentary, the editor of Catholic World News, Phil Lawler, said Archbishop Maury’s claim seemed exaggerated, but it should not be dismissed too quickly.
Nearly every month, he said, the Vatican announced Episcopal resignations accepted under the canon law provision that the bishop has become unsuited for his office “because of illness or some other grave reason”.
“In most cases, no doubt illness really is the reason. But how many bishops have been persuaded to resign for ‘some other grave reason’?
“Even among the bishops who have reached canonical retirement age, the Pope may have done some selective pruning,” Lawler said.
“Archbishop Rembert Weakland was just a few weeks past his 75th birthday when he was replaced as Archbishop of Milwaukee; for Cardinal Roger Mahony in Los Angeles, only a few days elapsed. Just this week the Pope accepted the resignation of Edinburgh’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien nearly a month before his 75th birthday.
“Since the Vatican posts only bland, pro-forma announcements in every case, we may never know how many bishops have left office earlier than they might have wanted.”
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